The ongoing case against Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan became mired in even more controversy when one of his accusers filed a complaint over her identity being stolen and illegally published by a rogue French intelligence agent, Le Parisien reported.
Ramadan, a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford’s St. Anthony’s College and grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, is currently facing four charges of rape in France. The two initial charges were made by feminist activist Henda Ayari, with the other one being a disabled woman identified only as “Christelle.”
However, Ramadan’s supporters reportedly uncovered Christelle’s identity in 2018 after hiring an active member of France‘s internal intelligence agency Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE), identified only as “Haurus,” to comb through the Dark Web for information. This agent has reportedly fallen into disgrace for selling information, according to a report accessed by Le Parisien, and the agent has since been indicted.
In 2019, Christelle sought legal action to stop Ramadan from publicizing her identity in his book, titled Devoir de vérité or Duty of Truth, which mentions her name no less than 84 times. However, her first name and birthdate was reportedly released to, and published by, the Muslim Post, a Tunis-based news outlet that has published many articles in Ramadan’s defense.
Christelle’s lawyer, Eric Morain, now wants to request the admission of evidence from the Haurus case into the case against Ramadan.
Speaking to Le Parisien, Morain referred to the actions as “foul-smelling” and said that it was part of an effort to pressure and scare his client with threats into silence.
“Investigations must be carried out to find out if these foul-smelling practices are the work of Tariq Ramadan and his entourage, even if it seems obvious,” he said.
“In this case, there have been many pressures and threats on the victims to scare them and silence them. The disclosure of identities and addresses is part of these methods.”
And it seems Ramadan’s supporters have helped keep this pressure campaign active. According to a report in Le Monde, Ramadan and his supporters have been attacking his accusers over social media. This included retweeting comments about a supposed conspiracy against the scholar, but also included insults, threats and fake screenshots by many accounts over several social networks.
Ramadan is scheduled to appear before the French court on June 24 for violating anonymity protections, which French law grants to victims of assault.
Though initially denying any sexual contact with his accusers over a span of years, Ramadan later claimed in October 2018 that he had consensual sex with his accusers.
He has consistently denied all the charges against him and labeled them as a media frenzy, while his supporters have called the charges an “international Zionist plot.”
